Looking at the past six games, it’s feast or famine for the Sharks when it comes to scoring.

Thirteen goals in three wins, three goals in what would have been three losses if it weren’t for Antti Niemi’s outstanding goaltending in that 1-0 victory over the Blackhawks.

But the near-drought for goals goes back further than that when it comes to three forwards who were among the team’s leading scorers earlier in the season.

Ryane Clowe has gone 10 games without a goal. Logan Couture has one in his last eight games. Marty Havlat has only one for the season and that was 10 games ago, but he’s also dried up as a productive playmaker with just one assist in the last nine games.

This morning, Todd McLellan acknowledged that after reuniting the three on the same line late in Monday night’s 2-0 loss to Los Angeles, he’s tempted to keep them together Thursday night when the Montreal Canadiens make their once-every-two-years appearance at HP Pavilion.

We’ll go deeper into that situation in tomorrow’s print edition story, but here’s what Clowe had to say on the lack of scoring this morning.

“I guess you could always say ‘I feel good and the puck’s not going in’ or ‘the goalie’s making good saves,’ but it’s all about production,” Clowe said. “That’s what matters, finding a way.

“You’ve got to find a way,” he continued. “You’ve got to bear down. Execution’s not just passing and taking care of the puck and all that. It’s about finishing.”

That Dan Boyle story for the print edition that I mentioned in the previous posting is available online now. Follow the link at right if you’re interested.

It focuses on the last six games — a pointless (literally) streak that matches his longest scoring drought from last season. It notes he’s on pace for 40 points — 10 below his previous low point as a Shark. It makes passing reference to the increased frequency of giveaways.

That wasn’t necessarily the story I planned to do when I showed up at practice today, but the topic was on the mental list we bring to work every day. As it turned out, there was an opportunity to talk relatively privately and Boyle didn’t bristle or back away from the topic.

We learned that about him early when Boyle arrived four years ago. He is one player you can approach when things aren’t going well and expect to get a pretty detailed self-analysis.

To me one of the most interesting things was his acknowledgement that the game has changed, that opponents have tightened up in the neutral zone and that puck-carrying defensemen such as himself need to adjust their game as well.

“The game’s changed,” he said. “Everybody’s playing the same way – the neutral zone is pretty much eliminated, which is where I get a lot of my offense. Everybody just fires long bombs, chipping it in. It’s just a little bit more frustrating for me.”

Things may be about to change for the one stable line that the Sharks have been able to keep together virtually every game now that Frazer McLaren is back from his Worcester conditioning assignment.

Maybe not immediately, but at some point, Todd McLellan says he’ll be giving the 6-foot-5, 250-pound McLaren some game time and the logical place would be somewhere on the fourth line now occupied by Brad Winchester, Andrew Desjardins and Andrew Murray.

“It gives us another piece we can use,” McLellan said after Sunday’s skate and before the team boarded its charter jet for Los Angeles.

McLaren had off season hip surgery and hadn’t played in a game since last March before going to Worcester for a two-week stint. In seven games there, he had no point and 18 minutes in penalties that included two fights.

“No matter if it’s conditioning or what, I’ve still got to play my game and play my role,” McLaren said. “Even if I was only down there for two weeks, those were still my teammates and I’ve got to stick up for them. That doesn’t change.”

McLaren — who has one goal, five assists and 76 penalty minutes in 32 NHL games over the past two seasons — said the conditioning assignment went well.

Having gotten a head start on the pre-game hype yesterday, time to turn to the nuts and bolts of tonight’s 7 p.m. — note early start — rematch of last season’s Western Conference finalists.

Look for Jason Demers and Jim Vandermeer as the Sharks’ third d-pairing. For Vandermeer, it’s only the second time this season he’ll be in the lineup for consecutive games and when I pointed that out, he had to smile at the mini-accomplishment.

“It’s definitely a good thing. but we’ve just got to stay consistent, stay sharp and play well – make it a hard decision for the coaches,” Vandermeer said, speaking for himself and Demers.

Actually, this makes three of the last four for Vandermeer. Coincidence that he’s penciled in for Dallas, Chicago and Vancouver — but not Colorado? Maybe because those three teams play a more physical, tougher game?

“Maybe,” Vandermeer said. “It just depends on how you read into it. You can take it like that or maybe it’s just a rotation, who knows. But that’s what I bring so if those are the games they want me in for, that’s what I do.”

Lines at the morning skate showed Torrey Mitchell back on the second with Ryane Clowe and Patrick Marleau, which puts Havlat on the third with Jamie McGinn and Michal Handzus.

Just trying to spread the scoring potential around, or something tailored to tonight’s opponent?

So my colleague, Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver Province, noticed what the Sharks had to say about the Canucks here at Working the Corners yesterday and ran some of that by the Vancouver players after their 5-0 win in Phoenix last night.

Here’s RYAN KESLER’s response:

“We’re going to stay classy and we’re going to play our game and that’s a fast-paced game and if we do that, I like our chances. You know, they can say whatever they want. I don’t understand. We play the game hard and we play it tough. We play their skilled players tough and most don’t like it.”

And here’s what a couple others had to say about tonight’s game in general:

CHRIS HIGGINS — “It’s an extremely tough building to play in and such a tough team. We’ll have our hands full, but if we play with the compete level we had tonight [Friday], we’ll give them hell.”

HENRIK SEDIN: “In the past, it would have been easy to take Saturday off and go home with a 2-1 road trip. We’re a different team. We want to show we’re a great team. But they are tough games there. As long as we’ve been here, we’re usually out of games [in San Jose] after five minutes. It’s been better lately.”

The Vancouver Canucks are next on the schedule for the Sharks and that, of course, means that – for a second consecutive game – San Jose will be facing one of the team that eliminated it from the Stanley Cup playoffs.

But more on that later.

More timely is the fact that Saturday night at HP Pavilion, the Sharks will be playing the team that retired veteran Mark Recchi described last week as “the most arrogant team I played against and the most hated team I’ve ever played against” in a 22-year career that ended last spring as a member of the Boston Bruins team that defeated Vancouver to win the cup.

So, Douglas Murray, you want to disagree with that assessment by Recchi?

“No,” Murray said. “No. I don’t think so. But it’s not the whole team either. It’s certain individuals that give them that reputation. I’m not going to sit here and call out names, but you guys know. It’s so obvious for anybody that watches the game.

What about you, Ryane Clowe?

“I’m not going to sit here and disagree with him,” Clowe said. “I think a lot of teams played against them in the playoffs have similar feelings. We haven’t played them this year so we’ll see.”

Of the three players surveyed, only Logan Couture offered a different response.

Well, at this point I’m guessing high on the list of things Doug Wilson and the Sharks are thankful for is the decision by the Chicago Blackhawks to let Antti Niemi walk away as a salary-cap casualty.

“Unbeleivable. He’s the reason we got two points tonight,” Sharks captain Joe Thornton said after San Jose’s 1-0 victory over those same Blackhawks. “He played great. For whatever reason, he likes playing aginst his old team and thank goodness for that.”

Wait. For whatever reason?

“Who knows.” Thornton responded. “But he played great. A couple of his saves were spectacular and we’re glad to have him on this side.”

Thornton, of course, may know better than anyone on the team about the added incentive of playing against a team that, well, maybe you feel didn’t fully appreciate you somewhere along the way.

But, understandably, he wasn’t about to open that door.

Suffice to say that Niemi’s 34-save, first shutout of the season included some impressive saves on the likes of Marian Hossa and Jonathan Toews. And, as tomorrow’s print edition story gets into, Niemi acknowledged that maybe he did benefit a little bit from having those guys as teammates in the past.

One more pre-game look at tonight’s match-up with Chicago a mere 162 minutes before faceoff:

Sharks coach Todd McLellan acknowledged Wednesday that his current second line of Patrick Marleau, Ryane Clowe and Torrey Mitchell may still be in a getting-to-know-you phase.

And that, he suggested, may have something to do with the fact Clowe’s productivity has dropped in recent games as he has gone seven without a goal and has only one assist in his past four. Another part of the explanation? Clowe has been playing on a line without Logan Couture through most of that stretch.

“Potentially. I think there is an adjustment phase,” McLellan said after the morning skate. “But I think it’s a healthy thing for our team, the ability to play with different people and adjust.”

The coach also noted that Clowe has “done some really good things away from scoring – along the boards, sticking up for his teammates, managing the neutral zone. Right now, he’s doing a better job of that than he did earlier in the year.

“The goals, assists — they’ll come. His numbers are still fairly strong,” McLellan said. “And I think him and Patty and Mitchy will click at some point.”

Mitchell replaced Marty Havlat on San Jose’s second line late in the first period of San Jose’s 4-1 victory in Dallas on Saturday night.